With the U.S. Marines expected to increase the number of troops in Guam to 8000 in the near future,

“An activist group from Okinawa has released a report compiling over 400 documented cases of gang rape, abduction, beating, murder and other forms of abuses committed by American soldiers against the Japanese people from the post-war period until recent years.

The reports compiled by the Okinawa Women Act Against Military Violence showed that only 29 cases had corresponding records of convictions.”

According to the group’s director, Suzuyo Takazato,

“The cases of abuses committed by the American troops during the postwar period were never solved and those who committed them were never punished. After the war, Okinawa was placed under the control of the U.S. military beginning in 1945. During which time, Okinawa couldn’t prosecute crimes committed by military personnel. “It was only after Okinawa was reverted to Japan in 1972 that military crimes were brought to civilian courts,” Takazato said.

While the people of Guam are still awaiting war reparations and apology from the Japanese government for the sexual enslavement of Chamoro women and other atrocities committed by the Imperial Army, the people of Okinawa have their own nightmares to confront related to the abuses of the American troops.

The documented cases included incidents such as women being gang raped in front of their husbands and fathers.”